Persons caring for infant children must periodically attend to their needs of cleaning and diapering as well as changes of clothes. While this task is comparatively simple to carry forward in the home environment, there arises considerable difficulty in meeting these infant care needs during periods of travel or other periods spent in public environments. One of the major difficulties presented during such travel periods and time spent in public environments is the general lack of access to appropriate sanitary care facilities to accomplish the infant care needs. More particularly, there arises a need for a conveniently available sanitary surface upon which the infant may be placed during infant care and diapering. In addition, there arises a need for access to certain products which are generally used in the care and cleansing of an infant during diapering and other infant care activities.
In general, this need has been virtually ignored by persons maintaining travel facilities and public environments. As a result, there has arisen a need to provide appropriate infant care facilities to travelers and persons occupying public environments. This need has prompted practitioners in the art to create various devices intended to make such infant care facilities available.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,851,700 issued to Denison sets forth a COMBINED CHILD' CRIB AND DRESSING TABLE in which a conventional child's crib is adapted to support a pivotally mounted dressing table surface. The dressing table is supported alternatively in a storage position or an extended position in which it overlies a portion of the child's crib and is supported thereby.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,735,737 issued to Hancock sets forth a DIAPERING SUPPORT in which a wall mounted housing supports a roll of disposable paper against a wall surface such that the desired quantity of disposable paper may be drawn outwardly from the housing. The housing further supports a flat surface which is hingeably secured to the housing at one end and supported by a pair of folding arms near the other end. The flat surface is foldable to a closed position against the supporting wall and an open position in a general horizontal orientation extending outwardly from the housing and supported by the folding arms. The disposable paper is drawn outwardly from the housing to overlie the flat surface during infant diapering and care.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,613,996 issued to Chase, et al. sets forth a FOLDING CHILD SUPPORT in which a generally rectangular enclosure is adapted to be securely supported by a wall surface. The enclosure includes a hingeably secured outer surface which is pivotable between a closed position securing the enclosure and an extended position in which it forms a generally horizontal child care surface. The enclosure further supports a plurality of compartments and shelves and a variety of integrally molded utility features.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,817,571 issued to Lee sets forth a WALL ATTACHED FOLDING TABLE in which a generally planar table is secured to a wall mounted support structure by a plurality of articulated arms and springs. Means are provided for locking the table in the extended position during use and for folding the table against the supporting wall during periods of nonuse.
In addition to the foregoing, practitioners in the art have provided other examples of folding table or work support mechanisms. U.S. Pat. No. 3,232,663 issued to Janke, U.S. Pat. No. 2,857,222 issued to Keck, and U.S. Pat. No. 1,517,044 issued to Boyer all set forth examples of different folding and support structures for collapsible and foldable table devices.
While the foregoing described devices provide some attention to the needs of persons traveling with infants or moving in public environments with infants, they have thus far failed to properly provide for the complete needs of the persons caring for infants during travel and public activity. As a result, there remains a need in the art for a convenient, easily accessible and reliably sanitary facility for use by persons during infant care.